Need help with Magic items

garrowolf · Apr 20, 2011

I am starting to work on magic items for my nexus d20 game. Does anyone have any recommendations on them? Any particular styles of magic items you like or a particular way a game does them?

Thanks!

Ed_Laprade · Apr 20, 2011

garrowolf said:
I am starting to work on magic items for my nexus d20 game. Does anyone have any recommendations on them? Any particular styles of magic items you like or a particular way a game does them?

Thanks!

Potions and scrolls, of course. And weird stuff. The weirder the better. I'm 50/50 on + weapons and armor. If you use them, try to add something to them. Something weird, of course!

And don't forget items that don't have any (appearent) adventuring uses!

garrowolf · Apr 21, 2011

well one of the things that I was thinking about was having levels of integration into society.

Total integration would be were it was the norm for most things, maybe a replacement for science. This would be most settings that are like D&D were you can go into a shop and just buy something magical but low powered.

Then there would be settings that have no standard magic items at all but still have some magic users such as Shadowrun where the magic items are foci for the magic users.

I'm trying to figure out good levels between these two.

garrowolf · Apr 22, 2011

This is what I settled on.

Magic Item Levels
Not every setting has magic items. Some have them in different amounts. The GM must set the Magic Item Level for his setting. This will determine how much non-magical characters will be able to use magic items. It will also determine a lot about the setting in terms of how much magic will impact the setting. These levels also depend on certain levels of mana in the setting.

No Magic Items – At this level there are no magic items at all. This would be for a Low Mana setting. Psionics usually don't have any foci or magic item requirements so this would be the norm for that kind of setting. Alchemy and Enchanting are not available in this setting. In this setting magic may not be widely know about.

Foci Only – This is good for a low to medium mana setting. Basically magic users use Foci to help them cast their magic or use certain feats. This could be anything from a wand for a sorcerer to a strange jetpack with no fuel for a technomancer. Alchemy and Enchanting are not available in this setting. Magic may not be widely known about.

Bonded Items – Now it is possible for a non-magic user to have magic items. It requires an Enchanter to bond a magic item to a specific person. It becomes bonded to that person and his family line forever. Alchemy is available at this level. In this setting it would be normal to have magic shops and such. This would require a medium to high mana level. Magic would have to be known at this point.

Weird Science – This requires a high mana level setting. Various ores are available that channel magic by themselves. Now it just requires some engineering to make magic items. At this point magic items would be the norm and replace normal items in many settings. All the other kinds of magic items would also be available.